Republican Party of Texas

The Republican Party of Texas is a conservative political party in the US state of Texas that is affiliated with the US Republican Party. The party was founded in 1854 as a liberal party, and the Republicans were only briefly able to hold power during the Reconstruction era; from the 1880s until the 1960s, the US Democratic Party controlled state politics. In 1966, two Republicans were elected to the US House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction, and Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1976 Republican presidential primary in Texas led to the state adopting Reagan's conservative views. In 2016, the party held 20/31 State Senate seats and 99/150 State House of Representatives seats.